Salted Earth
by saoulbete
Summary: Boston PD catches a case that happens to have the same MO as two dead sailors in Annapolis. How will they react to suddenly having Feds riding their asses and trying to take control?


A/N don't take this as any sign I've put the Rizzoli Kid on the backburner. I actually have another 3 chapters of it written, its just...all three are currently written longhand due to...technical difficulties. Apologies for any typos etc, this was written on a phone. But after today's marathons, I just really, really, really wanted to write an NCIS/Rizzles x-over that had 0 mention of Kate Todd. This will be a bit slow going, update wise, just because I do have other things i'have to update. 5 dates Jane Saved Maura From, 5 Cigarettes Jane Smoked, The Rizzoli Kid...all of which have other chapters written, it's just...slow going. But this took hold and decided to be written *now*

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She took a deep breath as she got out of the unmarked that she drove as an every-day vehicle, loving the exhilaration that always came with a brand new crime scene. She paused for a second, as she got out of the car, surveying the scene before ducking under yellow crime scene tape. A dead body, found in the middle of a largely unused warehouse, by a junkie who made more use of the place as a shooting gallery than for its intended use. It'd been called in anonymously, whoever had found him scampering off into the early morning light. And now, the better part of half an hour later – she'd never liked getting calls at three in the morning – she found herself looking at the corpse. "So, what do we have?" She asked, surprised that Maura had beat her to the crime scene.

"Caucasian male, mid thirties, throat slit, no defensive wounds but -" Two deft hands gently rolled the body, revealing the man's ventral side, pausing to allow Frost a moment to compose himself before she began speaking again. No words needed to be said, the wounds explained themselves. "No ligature marks, but there are adhesive remnants around the wrists."

"So whoever did this duct taped them, tortured them, and slit their throat?" There was a slight nod.

"Many of the wounds look to be inflicted peri-mortem."

"This looks personal." Jane knelt next to Maura, getting a better look at the wounds. Multiple slashes and gashes, none of them deep enough to be a killing blow, none of them deep enough to even cause enough blood loss to cause shock, but all of them deep enough to be incredibly painful.

"There also appears to be a crystaline substance across the entirety of the man's chest, that -"

"It's salt, Maura. Bastard slashed him up and then rubbed salt in the wounds." She could see Frost wince. "This is personal. This is someone who really hated this guy. Any ID?"

"Mitchell Diamond, 36, he' does IT security."

"Who the hell did he piss off to get someone to do this?" Jane sighed, running a hand through her hair as she got up from where she was crouching, surveying the scene. "Any trace from the dump job? Tire tracks, footprints, drag marks?" Frost looked around.

"CSU found fluid in the alley over there-" Frost gestured to the side street that led into the loading bay that held their victim. "-Looks like oil. Already have them getting a sample." Jane wandered over to where the puddle in question lay, pursing her lips.

"That's a pretty big puddle." She watched the way that the liquid trailed away until it hit the avenue, and went cold. Too many cars traversed the main road, they'd never be able to track the path. Their killer wasn't a complete idiot. "So, we're looking for a car with an oil leak. Judging by this, he was either here for a while – which it doesn't look like, or that's a pretty big leak. We should get a canvas going on all the gas stations in the area, he can't have gone too far without needing to buy more oil to feed that thing." She looked around the rest of the scene, hoping to find some other bits of trace evidence to give them a new lead.

Sighing, she watched as Maura loaded the body into the coroner's van, slamming the doors of it shut, watching the uniformed officers start on the canvas, gathering together all the notes she had before heading back to the precinct. She'd barely walked through the door that held the homicide bullpen before Cavanaugh was striding towards her, and she could see another man waiting in the Lieutenant's office. "Rizzoli!" She set her jaw, walking towards the commanding officer. "My office."

She sized up the other man therein as they walked towards it, glad for the clear glass. The neatly cropped gray hair, the button down shirt and khakis, everything about the man screamed _Fed. _"What do the Fibbies want with this?" She asked once the door had closed behind her.

"Not FBI." She quirked an eyebrow, wondering who else would be interested in a dead body. "NCIS." A badge was waved in front of her, and she eyed it warily.

"Agent Gibbs here was just informing me that his agency has two cases with a very similar MO in Annapolis."

"You think this is the same guy?"

"It's a good possibility." The man's tone was even, authoritative, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to rise.

"And Boston PD has always believed in inter-agency cooperation, isn't that right, Detective?" She fought the urge to glare at Cavanaugh, opting instead for a very forced smile as she looked at the agent in front of her.

"Yes, we have. What do you have so far, Agent Gibbs?" Her voice was dripping with false politeness as they walked into the bullpen, the rest of a foreign team assembling seemingly from the shadows. She'd never liked feds, and she had a feeling that this case was going to try her patience to the very core.


End file.
